ATF Doubles Reward on Ft. Benning Blaze Info

Remains of the JAG office. Click on the image for more photos. (Photo: Lily Gordon, Ledger-Enquirer.com)

Federal and military authorities are probing a suspicious blaze that destroyed the Judge Advocate General’s office at Fort Benning, near Columbus in West Georgia.

Investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are looking for evidence in the charred remains of the 10,000 sq.-ft. building, which went up in flames on Friday.

The ATF announced Tuesday afternoon that they are adding an additional $5,000 to the $5,000 reward offered earlier by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) for information on the fire.

Special agent Scott Sweetlow of the BATF National Response Team says the're looking for what sparked the blaze:

“...we're trying to develop a full picture with the use of our accelerant-detection canines, and our chemists. We're collecting evidence, but as a general principle we don't make any sort of a determination until we've got all of the facts in hand.”

If investigators find traces of an accelerant, it may indicate arson.

Former staff judge advocate and former Columbus mayor Bob Poydasheff worked at the office in the 1960's and 70's. He was stunned by the loss:

"It's just absolutely devastating to see. ...an historic building destroyed for what purpose? ... it's just unfair; it's stupid, it's just unfair."

Fort Benning emergency service director Lt. Col. Kevin Clarke says 35 Columbus and Fort Benning firefighters battled the fire, which they got under control around 1 a.m. Saturday.

After viewing the site on Sunday, and speaking with officials, Poydasheff says he has little doubt as to the cause:

"I've been told that there were some propane tanks, and so the way it presented itself - the entire building - there's no doubt in my mind; it was arson."

Sweetow declined to confirm or deny whether propane tanks were found among the ruins of the building.

Sweetow says they expect to conclude their investigation by Friday.

Senior JAG attorney Col. Tracy Barnes believe they'll be able to recover most of their digitally-stored files on the office's network server, computers and e-mail.

"We're certainly aware, that as part of the justice system - the federal court system, there's some critical records that are there," Sweetow said.

Barnes says no evidence was kept in the structure, and that the fire will not affect pending cases.

Post officials have relocated basic legal services to another office for the interim.

The 10,000 sq.-ft. JAG office is the second oldest building on post, and provides legal services for infantry troops and their families at the 184,000-acre training base.

The structure houses a law library, archives, and the courtroom where Army Lt. William Calley was convicted in the murder of 22 Vietnamese citizens at My Lai in 1968. That case was later overturned.

Officials have requested that anyone with information regarding the incident contact CID at 706-545-8915 or e-mail CID at crimetips@conus.army.mil, or ATF's 24-hour, toll-free hotline at 1-888-ATF-FIRE (1-888-283-3473).

Click here for more GPB News coverage about Fort Benning.

Fire Destroys Army's JAG Legal Office at Ft. Benning

A fire destroyed a building that houses the Judge Advocate General's office at Fort Benning.

Fort Benning Fire Chief Arthur Simmons says a military police officer was treated for smoke inhalation in the Friday night blaze.

The JAG office, staffed by some 22 attorneys, handles legal matters for soldiers, including criminal investigations.

Benning emergency service director Lt. Col. Kevin Clarke says 35 Columbus and Fort Benning firefighters battled the fire, which they got under control around 1 a.m. Saturday.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

(AP)

Ft. Benning soldier discharged in trainee beating

The Army has kicked out a soldier for beating a Jewish trainee who complained about religious harassment in their basic training unit, a Fort Benning spokesman said Monday.

Citing federal privacy laws, the Army had previously refused to discuss how it punished the attacker of Pvt. Michael Handman, 20, of Atlanta, other than to say the case had been handled as an administrative matter rather than as a crime.

That changed after the southeast director of the Anti-Defamation League met Fort Benning officials Friday. Col. Charles Durr, chief of staff at Fort Benning, told the ADL's Bill Nigut the assailant had been discharged.

"The soldier that was punished for the assault on Pvt. Handman has been processed for discharge from the Army," Fort Benning spokesman Bob Purtiman confirmed Monday.

The Army says Handman was beaten Sept. 24 by a fellow trainee in a laundry room near his barracks. Handman was treated at an Army hospital for a concussion and bruising to his face. He has since been transferred to another basic training unit at Fort Benning in Columbus.

Four days before the attack, Handman was interviewed by commanders of his basic training unit about complaints he'd made in letters to his parents that he had been harassed by two drill sergeants because he's Jewish.

The Army later acknowledged one drill sergeant had ordered Handman to remove his yarmulke, which he wore with his uniform, as he ate in a dining hall. Another drill sergeant had called him "Juden" - the German word for Jews.

Officials said last month that Handman's attacker had been punished administratively but refused to release further details, citing federal privacy laws.

Click here for previous GPB News coverage of this story.

(AP)

Ft. Benning: Corps okays $64M BRAC project

Entrance gate to Fort Benning. (Dave Bender/file)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded two California and Virginia Beach, Va.-based consulting firms a $64 million to design and build several public structures on Fort Benning, near Columbus.

Tetra Tech-Tesoro says they will build a library and instruction facility, a maintenance facility, and storage buildings in the joint project.

The project is part of the Army's planned relocation of the Armor Center at Fort Knox to Fort Benning over the next several years, as part of the Base Realignment and Closure program (BRAC).

Maneuver Center of Excellence

Tetra Tech-Tesoro says they expect the construction to be completed in 2010, according to a Market Watch report.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about BRAC and Fort Benning.

One-dollar coin to honor US Army Infantry, fund museum at Ft. Benning

The US House of Reps passed a legislation today authorizing a commemorative $1 coin to honor the US Army Infantry and to help fun the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Ga.

The coins would be sold for $10 with some proceeds used to create an endowment fund for the museum, which is already under construction. The coin design would demonstrate courage, pride, sacrifice, sense of duty and the history of the Army Infantry.

Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville and Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop of Albany, Ga. introduced and co-sponsored the legislation.

The measure still needs approval from the Senate and faces heavy competition from other commemorative coin proposals.

Ft. Benning: more water for BRAC

Secondary settling basin at one of the post's three aging water-treatment plants. (Dave Bender)

Fort Benning near Columbus today inaugurated an upgraded, higher-flow water treatment system, fed from the Chattahoochee River. But officials say the post's use won't affect the river's drought-strained water levels upstream.

The step is part of an upgrade for the post's three aging water treatment facilities, which had previously only drawn water from the nearby Upatoi Creek.

Army officials say they expect a sharp increase in usage in coming years: 30,000 troops and their families that will join their ranks, as an entire armor school from Fort Knox transfers here as part of the nationwide Base Realignment and Closure program (BRAC).

Post garrison Commander Colonel Keith Lovejoy is responsible for coordinating the project with state and local agencies.

Lovejoy says he doesn't foresee future water usage conflicts with the Army Corps of Engineers, and says they are planning their water usage together:

“They are controlling all of our growth here. they're the ones that are issuing the contracts here; they're the ones making sure the pipes are right, they're making sure that we have enough water.”

Lovejoy adds that all of the agencies dealing with the issue, meet regularly to ensure the 184,000 acre training base has enough water for the nearly 110,000 troops that pass through it's gates annually:

“...As a matter of fact, once a month we get everybody together: the Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Columbus Water Works, Flint Electricity; just put everybody together in the same room to make sure that the impact, and what everybody's doing to everybody else is working.”

Dr. Carol Couch of the Environmental Protection Division says the post's water needs won't significantly affect the Chattahoochee's water levels.

Couch says the area has six-to-10 times the water flow of upstream communities in the Atlanta area. She says state meteorologists see the drought continuing this summer, and is encouraging Georgia's residents make conserving water a regular part of their life:

“Conserving ought to be something we do every day, and adapting and modifying how we use water. and it isn't really a radical change in lifestyle; it's just something that ought to be as natural as – for most people today – clipping a seat belt together.”

Columbus Water Works officials say the city purifies and returns about 90 percent of the water it uses to the river, and don't foresee the post's expected usage to be a problem.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of events at Fort Benning, and the effects of the expected BRAC move to the area.

Nursing center breaks ground in Columbus

Perdue and officials at the groundbreaking ceremony. (Dave Bender)

Governor Sonny Perdue turned the first shovelful of earth for a planned medical sciences technical training center in Columbus Tuesday.

Perdue was joined by a host of state and local officials at the festive ceremony, which was held under a large tent in a field near the Columbus Technical College.

Perdue touted the timing of building the Dr. Robert L. Wright, Jr. Health Sciences Center, in conjunction with nearby Fort Benning's expected expansion, and influx of soldiers and families in the next few years:

"It means the spouse of a soldier who relocated to for t benning will have the opportunity to earn a degree and possibly find a nursing job right here."

The State of Georgia is paying $16 million of the estimated $21 to $25 million dollars the nursing and health sciences training center will cost.

Artist's rendering of the planned Dr. Robert L. Wright, Jr. Health Sciences Center. (Courtesy)

Officials expect the 84,000 sq.-ft. facility to double Columbus Technical College's current 1,100-student enrollment.

Construction on the center is to begin in the fall, and officials expect to finish by mid-2010.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of events in Columbus and at Fort Benning.

Returning troops expected to boost economy

Sign of the times in Columbus: a dry cleaning service near Fort Benning welcomes the 3rd ID home. (Dave Bender)

The return of several thousand troops from Iraq in coming weeks, is expected to give a boost to businesses around Columbus in western Georgia. The hoped-for economic shot-in-the-arm will come from some 3,800 combat soldiers of the US Army's Third Brigade, who served in the Baghdad area.

Several units recently redeployed to nearby Fort Benning, in order to prepare families and the post for the main force. But the brigade's year-long absence was felt far beyond the gates of the base.

Mike Gaymon of the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce:

“When the Third Brigade left, the growth of Chattahoochee County became the worst in the 159 counties in Georgia, and then when the third comes back, they will lead the state in growth.”

Gaymon says apartments complexes, car dealerships, and furniture and appliance stores are among those eagerly awaiting the “boots on the ground.”

Billboard near Ft. Benning pitches studies at Columbus State University for returning troops. (Dave Bender)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Fort Benning and other Georgia military affairs.

Ft. Benning soldier killed in Iraq

The Defense Department on Thursday announced the death of Staff Sgt. Jeffery Lee Hartley, 25, of Hempstead, Texas.

Hartley died Tuesday of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated beneath his vehicle, according to the DoD.

Joining the Army in 2001, Hartley served as a radioman in the Signal Corps, with the 3rd Brigade at Fort Benning, near Columbus. He was unmarried and deployed to Iraq in March, 2007.

Hempstead is about 50 miles northwest of Houston.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB news coverage of Fort Benning.

Columbus soldier killed in Iraq

Sgt. Darren Dhanoolal. (Photo: Kynesha Dhanoolal)

Sgt. Darren Dhanoolal, of Columbus was killed on Monday in the Baghdad area when a roadside bomb exploded by an armored vehicle he was driving.

The Army has not yet released an official statement of Dhanoolal's death, although his family has been notified.

Dhanoolal and his wife were last together during Christmas, and was due back in the States in several weeks, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.

His body was flown back to the States on Wednesday, and funeral arrangements are being made.

Dhanoolal was 26-year-old.

Ft. Benning officials say 74 of their soldiers have been killed since their first deployment to Iraq five years ago, and 25 from Dhanoolal's brigade since last March.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of events at Ft. Benning and other military installations in Georgia.

Iraqi man, family start new life in Columbus

Maj. Britton Yount, Iraqi interpreter Ammar Mahdi Hadi at Ft. Benning. (Courtesy of The Bayonet/Bridgett Siter)

An Iraqi interpreter who worked hand-in-hand with a Ft. Benning-based US Army major and coalition forces throughout Iraq, is now making a new home in Columbus, together with his wife and eight-month-old daughter.

29-year-old Ammar Mahdi Hadi, in his three years working as an interpreter, says he saw 20 friends and colleagues killed for such duty:

"People were starting to get suspicious. If they recognize I love Americans, we would not be safe," he said. "I want better for my daughter. I wish for her that she does not live in that bloody world."

Major James Yount worked closely with Hadi, who fled Iraq several weeks ago with his family, according to a just-released report in the post newspaper, The Bayonet.

Hadi is now employed as a construction worker at Ft. Benning. He, his wife and baby girl are learning the sights, sounds, and tastes of a new life in America.

New air service to Columbus

The Eclipse 500 is part of a new airplane category called "very light jets," and carries three passengers at speeds up to 425 mph — faster than the average propeller plane its size. (Wilfredo Lee/AP file)

A regional business air-carrier has just added Columbus to its roster of destinations in Georgia and across the southeast. DayJet bills itself as the world's first per-seat, on-demand jet service.

The carrier currently serves 45 destinations across the southeast, catering to business travelers able to pay premium prices. For example, a hop between just-added destinations, Columbus and Savannah, runs between $300 and $1,000 dollars.

While DayJet is aimed chiefly at Columbus's executive clientèle like AFLAC and Synovus, Georgia Third District Congressman Lynn Westmoreland says the increased flight options will bolster smaller industries, as well:

"With the hassle of airports and major hubs, now, we just think this is going to be the access for a lot of businesses; some of these businesses in outlying areas to have a chance of promoting business and getting people to come to their area, because they'll now have this transportation for people within the business."

Westmoreland, who sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the aviation subcommittee says Ft. Benning's planned expansion will also benefit from the increased air traffic.

The training post is expected to see over 30,000 troops and dependents moving to the area over the next three years, as part of the Army's base relocation project:

"With the expansion of Ft. Benning, and all the things that Ft. Benning is doing, and the armor division coming down, and the new infantry museum... we just think that there needs to be just a little bit better regional service to the Columbus area. I think, right now, Delta has maybe two flights a day."

Westmoreland says DayJet may create a market more attractive to carriers like Delta, Airtran or Southwest.

A company spokesman says they'll be announcing other Georgia destinations in coming weeks.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of transportation issues.

Ft. Benning SOA protesters sentenced

SOA Watch founder, Reverend Fr. Roy Bourgeois, talks with members and defendants outside of Columbus District Court after the sentencing. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Demonstrators who illegally trespassed on the Fort Benning Army base during a protest were sentenced today in Columbus District Court.

This past November, eleven men and women protested at the School of the Americas Watch. Thousands of protesters annually demonstrate against the training school, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.


Baghuan after sentencing. (Photo: Dave Bender)

U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth gave 33-year-old Ozone Baghuan of Duluth, Minnesota a three-month sentence, but did fine him:

“This is my second offense and I'm very happy with my sentence.”
Interviewer: When are you going to start serving your sentence?
“I asked for self-report, and hopefully in the spring, once the Bureau of Prisons have made a bed for me.”

Faircloth handed down the group members - whose ages ranged from the 20s to the 70s - sentences including upwards of 90-days prison terms, and fines reaching $500 dollars.

SOA Watch Founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois, who was at the hearings, say the accused were proud of their deeds:

“You know, they embrace this. I mean, they're not trying to look for a loophole, they know the implications when the cross the line onto Fort Benning.”

Bourgeois says the protesters are following their conscience:

“True, they're breaking a law of Ft. Benning; a law of the state – but – like the Dr. Martin Luther King said, they're trying to follow a higher law.”

SOA Watch says the facility, located on the base, trains Latin American security forces in torture techniques – an allegation the school vehemently denies.


Rials during a tour of the facility, Nov., 2007. (File photo: Dave Bender)

Lee Rials, spokesman for WHINSEC said the facility's doors and classes were open to any visitor. Commenting on the sentencing, he said:

“Visitors are welcome to come see what we are and what we do before making such a life-changing decision.”

Military personnel at a training session at WHINSEC. (File photo: Dave Bender)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of WHINSEC, and SOA Watch.

Benning BRAC Planning Group Meets

(Courtesy Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce)

A coalition of ten Chattahoochee Valley counties met today to hammer out details of a massive program to bring tens of thousands of soldiers and their families to Fort Benning and Columbus.

The army's Base Realignment and Closure program – BRAC for short – will transfer some 40,000 troops from Ft. Knox, Kentucky by 2011.

A consortium known as The Valley Partnership is planning the infrastructure for the influx that will affect ten counties in Georgia, and three across the Chattahoochee River in Alabama.

Officials began working on a Regional Growth Management Plan just after the New Year. They're examining a 35-mile radius around the army training base to coordinate and assess the projected effects of the move on the area over the next 20-years. They include new highways, housing, schools, utilities, and a score of other issues.

Columbus Chamber of Commerce President Mike Gaymon, speaking to the Chattahoochee Valley group, Jan., 23, 2008. (Dave Bender)

Mike Gaymon, president of the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce:

“Highways, for example; buildings, for example. Where are these houses going to go, where do these subdivision need to go? Is the water and sewer there? And we know that there are a lot of areas, where there's no water and sewer... so, it's big. It touches every fabric and part of these counties we'll be working with.”

Local officials say the Department of Defense move – the biggest such peacetime personnel and materiel transfer in army history – will bring an estimated two billion dollars in capital investment to the area. In addition, the DoD is assisting the funding of the effort.

Ron Roth, vice president of Science Applications International Corporation, is in charge of the project's planning and integration:

“The Department of Defense – The Office of Economic Adjustment provides funding for communities that are affected by BRAC decisions. Columbus and the surrounding area has revieved the largest grant ever: 3.3 million dollars - so that's a pretty big deal.”

J. Mac Holladay, CEO of Market Street Services consultants, is crunching the research numbers:

“We are going to be specifically looking at the housing needs that this is going to bring to the region; we're going to be helping out on the educational needs, in terms of K-to-12, and higher education and what that's going to mean. The whole team is really working on about 16 different tasks.”

The project will affect Chattahoochee, Harris, Muscogee, Marion, Stewart, Talbot and Taylor counties in Georgia, and Barbour, Lee and Russel in Alabama.

“It has the largest regional impact I've ever seen. So I think it's that need for really looking at it in total, that's an important part of the project,” according to Holladay.

Projected BRAC growth timeline. Click on graph for full-size image. (Courtesy Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the BRAC project.

Ft. Benning opens trauma-recovery center

Fort Benning, near Columbus will open the doors of its Soldier and Family Assistance Center Friday morning.

The $1.2 million facility was built to help severely injured soldiers and their families through the recovery process, and ease transition back to duty or to a new life outside of the military.

The center will include services such as financial and legal counseling and employment assistance, as well as on-site child care, a recreation room, game room and a 10-station computer lab, according to a statement released by the post.

Click here for more GPB coverage of events at Fort Benning.

AT&T: $1 Million to Nat'l Infantry Museum

Officials, press gather at museum ceremony, June, 2007. (file photo/Dave Bender)

AT&T Inc. says it's donating $1 million to the National Infantry Foundation for the construction of the new National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center. NIF president, Jerry White:

"This gift not only affirms AT&T's commitment to the communities it serves, it demonstrates the company's allegiance to soldiers and their families and the sacrifices they make for our freedom."

The museum, being built in Columbus alongside Ft. Benning, is set to open in 2008.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the museum's construction.

GAO Report: Sharp Spike in Army Move Costs

Maneuver Center of Excellence. (Fort Benning)

A new report says the massive military relocation project for Fort Benning will have a much larger price tag than previous estimates.

The Base Realignment and Closure Program – BRAC, for short – was projected to cost taxpayers 21-billion dollars. Now, the figure is nearly 700 million dollars higher.

The Army says the added costs are for roads, sewers and infrastructure for the BRAC project which includes opening some bases, closing others, and moving 123,000 service personnel nationwide.

Georgia is the focus of a major BRAC initiative — moving the Army's Armor school from Ft. Knox, Kentucky to Fort Benning, near Columbus. It involves bringing some 30,000 troops and their families to the Columbus area.

The GAO says it may be the most expensive move in US military history. A Pentagon official says nationwide BRAC will, in his words, “enhance defense capabilities."

Click here for more GPB coverage about Ft. Benning.

Group Offers Soldiers Low-Cost Housing Loans

"Soldiers who protect the American dream can now get help buying into the American dream," according to a Columbus housing association.

NeighborWorks Columbus, a local organization that supports low-cost housing, says the organization's new Hallock Soldiers Fund offers counseling, down-payment assistance and low-interest loans.

NeighborWorks President Kathy Williams says the aid is specifically aimed at Ft. Benning personnel:

"We're trying to assist the lower-ranking soldier families, especially those who are going to be coming to Ft. Benning through the BRAC process. moving around from base-to-base for soldiers can often create for soldiers, obstacles to home ownership... it gives them an opportunity to really be able to invest in the community and build an asset for their family.”

Williams says none of the 483 Columbus residents who have taken part in the Neighborworks assistance program in the last five years have fallen into foreclosure.

Military homebuyers who have utilized the fund, NeighborWorks and Ft. Benning officials will be available for details at a press conference on-post on Friday at 1:30 pm. The event will be held at 7371 Ingersoll Street.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Ft. Benning and the BRAC realignment.

Wheeler's falls victim to housing slump

In business for more than half a century, Rome-based Wheeler's Building Materials is one of many forced to downsize because of reductions in new home construction. According to the Rome News Tribune, the company will reduce its 1,000 member workforce to less than 500.

Experts say Georgia has lost nearly 10,000 manufacturing jobs in 2007 and that additional losses in 2008, could mean a rocky road ahead. Jeff Humphreys directs the Selig Economic Forecast center at UGA's Terry School of Business.

"Prepare for subdued growth but recognize that the risk of recession is unusually high about 40 percent. So, we're close to a tipping point. It looks like we'll be safe. But there is a huge downside risk and the risk is greatest during the first half of 2008."

Not all economic news was bad news for the state. Humphreys says look for growth in the health care industry, as well as expansion in the Columbus area, where changes at Ft. Benning are expected to mean thousands of new jobs.

Kucinich calls for closing Ft. Benning school

Kucinich addressing the rally. (Dave Bender)

Ohio Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich told protesters outside the gates of Fort Benning, today that, if elected, he would close an on-post school that trains Latin American military personnel.

"Today I'm here in solidarity with people from all over the world, who are, who are demanding... that America take a new direction."

Opponents of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation – once known as the School of the Americas - charge that it trains personnel that have been involved in killings and human rights abuses in their home countries.

SOA founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois (blue shirt), and Kucinich comfort a Guatemalan woman, Adriana Bartow and her daughter, Sarina Carrillo sobbing against the fence. The two women, who now live in Chicago said they were grieving over the loss of seven members of their family to military forces in their country in 1981. (Dave Bender)

The weekend-long event, organized by the School of the Americas Watch, culminated with Sunday's march, a mock funeral procession, and a mass "die-in," along the post perimeter fence.

Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren said that Ft. Benning military police detained 10 protesters for trying to infiltrate onto the post. They were caught climbing over the perimeter fence at two locations, both of which were near the construction site of the National Infantry Museum on Lumpkin Road, Boren said.

Two protesters demonstrate "waterboarding," a controversial interrogation technique, opponents consider a form of torture. The willing subject of this simulation was unrestrained, and emerged unharmed from the brief exhibition. (Dave Bender)

Local officials said that on Saturday a similar number of residents and soldiers attended a day-long counter-rally downtown, calling it God Bless Fort Benning (GBFB), in a show of support for the infantry training facility.

Columbus Mayor Jim Weatherington who took an active part in the previous day's activities at GBFB, commented on the SOA Watch rally, saying:

"...We don't support it, but it's our job to make sure that folks can demonstrate -- but they can demonstrate peacefully."

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the SOA Watch protest.